TITLE: Associate Director, Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences, IL-1330-00; $119,554 to $165,300/yr
TYPE OF POSITION: Trust Fund (non-federal) Indefinite
DIVISION: - Solar and Stellar Physics Division
LOCATION: Cambridge, Massachusetts
AREA OF CONSIDERATION: Current qualified Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory employees

DUTIES: As Associate Director of the Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences Division, the incumbent is responsible for providing broad scientific leadership and administrative direction to the Division within the framework of Federal regulations and SI/SAO procedures and practices. Duties may include, but are not limited to: organizing both the short-term and long-range planning of the research direction of the SSP Division, including preparation of proposals and budgets and the planning for staffing needs of the SSP Division; overseeing the administrative functions of the SSP Division, including personnel management (e.g. preparation of position descriptions, hiring, performance reviews, promotions, termination), monitoring of procurement and fiscal management, assignment of offices and laboratory areas, property control, and equal employment opportunity; advising and stimulating scientific research activities of members of the observatory’s research staff in the field of solar, stellar, and planetary sciences, and keeping abreast of new developments in research, suggesting new avenues of investigation and new research methods and techniques and maintaining an awareness of the frontiers of knowledge in the field; advising, encouraging and stimulating scientific research activities of members of the observatory’s staff in the design and development of state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation and in field of optical and infrared astronomy and other wavelengths with particular emphasis in spectroscopy for research into extra-solar planets and/or stars; serving on committees for purposes of scientific planning activities, as an advisory resource, and for establishing future direction by building a tool set that provides users with substantial analysis power; determining the most relevant and fruitful areas for research for the division and formulating plans and hypotheses in areas which are new and unexplored, including potential new missions, or which have presented critical obstacles in the past, and carries them through to completion; leading instrument development teams comprised of astrophysicists and engineers to design and fabricate major new spectrographs; communicating research results through preparation of papers for publication in scientific journals and/or conference proceedings; and refereeing papers submitted to scientific journals and participate on NASA and other agency peer review committees.

QUALIFICATIONS :

Basic Requirements:

A. Degree: in one or a combination of astronomy, physics, mathematics, space science, or electronics. The course work must have included differential and integral calculus and 12 semester hours in astronomy and/or physics.

OR

B. Combination of education and experience -- at least 30 semester hours of courses equivalent to a major in any combination of astronomy, space science, physics, mathematics, and electronics, with required course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

In addition to the basic requirements above, you must have one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-15 level. Specialized experience is experience that includes advanced knowledge of state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation, including design and development of spectrographs for stellar and exoplanet research; this may be evident by publications proposing solutions to problems and by relevant professional experience; ability to conceive manage and direct programs of original research and prepare scientific papers for publications and presentation at international conferences.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: We will only accept applications on line for this position. For complete information about this position and the online application procedures, please visit: USAJOBS

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity in our workplace.
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